'Who Killed It' Pt. 8: "Maybe Dudes Was Too Well Off"
The other problem is that with so many other business ventures and things of that nature, some people tend to lose focus of the music. I applaud Kanye West because even with all his other ventures and everything that he tries to do with art and movies, and clothing, he still finds time to create quality music; once a week at that! There aren't too many people that do that now. With it almost being mandatory that you have to do movies these days, so often movies become more of a focus than the music and it shows. It may not even be that these artists lose their talents or still don't love the music, but movies demand so much of their time that the music and the fans that listen to it are what suffers. Couple this with other business ventures, endorsement deals, touring, and any other distractions (for lack of a better term), and making music tends to take a back seat.
Not only has wealth affected the people that actually achieve it, but it also affects the way people that want to achieve it make music. As we've discussed in past posts, so many artists that want to obtain that wealth don't find their own way, but attempt to duplicate other's success. This behavior stems from the misguided representation from many in the culture that money is somehow the demonstration of how good they are on the mic. Budden address this when he says, "You can tell a dude ‘I spit better than you’/but then he’ll say ‘I’m richer’ for whatever I do.” How the two correlate, I'm not quite sure, but many artists have used this as their rationale for why they are better than other artists.
This is the reason Nas mentions he's not sure if he wants hip hop to migrate back to the underground or for the entire world to have access to it on "Carry On Tradition" from his 2006 album Hip Hop Is Dead. Obviously, there are many benefits to the success and wealth that hip hop superstars are able to obtain. However, that has come at a cost, mainly many aspects of the culture that allowed us access to this wealth in the first place. We know that the music industry as a whole is struggling right now and hip hop seems to be taking one of the biggest hits. This may be just what is needed to get artists back on track and focus simply on the music and not he dollar signs that could potentially follow.
How do you think wealth has affected hip hop? Would hip hop be better off being an "underground secret" as Nas mentions? What are the benefits of the wealth and exposure hip hop has? Let our comments and of course you can e-mail at straightouttahiphop@gmail.com.
Peace.
Posted by H.E.R. Lover at 11/4/2010 2:08 PM 
Categories: 'Who Killed It' Series
Tags: music wealth Nas hip hop Joe Budden Kanye West
Categories: 'Who Killed It' Series
Tags: music wealth Nas hip hop Joe Budden Kanye West
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